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Interim Operational Users Guide for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAMTWS) Version 2.0; November 2011. (View the document)

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF NEAMWave14

NEAMWave14, as the second Tsunami Exercise in NEAM Region, will attempt to assess the national and local warning dissemination and response mechanisms put in place by Member State CPAs upon the reception of a Tsunami warning from their TWFPs. In addition NEAMWave14 will also address the questions related to the evaluation of alert messages by CTWPs and the issuance of the tsunami messages to TWFPs, as in the previous communication test exercises.

Validate and evaluate the procedures for countries to receive and confirm the Tsunami Messages issued by the CTWP trough their National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWC), or the country Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFP) or the country Tsunami National Contacts (TNC).

3.Test the dissemination of the warning messages to the relevant agencies that are responsible for emergency response (CPA).

Assess the organizational decision making process about public warnings and evacuations thus sensitizing/launching/contributing to the development of a national policy to tackle the tsunami risk.

Identify best practices (to be shared), criticalities (to be addressed by the programme in the future activities) and room for improvements in the entire process (including the already tested procedures between CTWPs and TWFPs/NTWCs and also the heterogeneous panorama of national capacities to handle the tsunami risk).

For more information on NEAMTWS structural elements please refer to the home page

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXERCISE

NEAMWave14 will involve the simulation of the assessment of a tsunami, based on an earthquake-driven scenario followed by alert message dissemination by CTWPs (Phase A) and continued with the simulation of the TWFP/NTWCs’ and CPAs’ actions (Phase B), as soon as the message produced in Phase A has been received. In addition as soon as the message produced in Phase A has been received by the European Commission Emergency Response and Coordination Centre (ERCC) the simulation continues at international level with the activation of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (Phase C)

There will be multiple scenarios in NEAMWave14, where each CTWP would be responsible for a single scenario at each scenario play and each non-CTWP Member State will be asked to choose a/the scenario(s) to participate in the exercise.

Please refer to the NEAMWave14 Manual for detailed information on the exercise, including its preparation, conduct and evaluation.

PARTICIPATION

TWFPs, in cooperation with national Civil Protection agencies, are invited to inform IOC Secretariat (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) through their Tsunami National Contacts (TNCs) no later than 1 September 2014 on their participation, including the phases in which they would like to participate, also indicating, if applicable, the level of their participation in Phase B. The definitions of the exercise types can be found in NEAMWave14 Manual. However, TWFPs are invited and encouraged to participate in Phase B at least at the level of a table-top exercise.

NOA

NOA (National Observatory of Athens) is the Greek National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) acting as Tsunami Watch Provider (TWP) for the NEAM region

Founded in 1842 is the oldest research foundation in Greece. It is made of three institutes, the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space application adn Remote Sensing, the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, and the Institute of Geodynamics. This last one is in charge of the NEAMTWS NTWC and TWP.

KOERI

KOERI (Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute) is the Turkish National Tsunami Warning Centre acting as Tsunami Watch Provider for the NEAM region.

The Kandilli Observatory, which was established in 1868, for meteorological, astronomical and seismological observations, was annexed to the Bogazici University and given an institutional academic status as Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) in 1982